April 29, 2020
To Family Members and Friends:
As promised, we are keeping you informed of changes that may impact you or your loved one. Today has been one of our toughest days, at Newton Care Center, since receiving our first confirmed COVID positive. We have a total of 26 positive Residents, 14 positive staff. As of today, we have had 5 Residents pass away from the virus.
The loss of any Resident is difficult as we have grown to love each Resident as our own family member. And today we had to say goodbye to an employee’s mom who lived at the facility, Stella. Stella is the beloved mother of Jo Donaldson, our Social Services Director. Both Stella and Jo have been staples of our facility and this loss will be felt for a long time to come. We ask you to keep Jo (and all our staff) in your thoughts and prayers as well as all the families of the Residents we are grieving.
Below are a few updates for this week:
• Testing – By the end of this week, we will have again tested all Residents and employees who are currently negative for COVID. Our goal is to continue this test strategy until we have a week with no new positives.
• COVID-19 Positive Unit – In accordance with new guidance delivered by the local and state departments of health, the entire facility, Newton Care Center will continue to operate a separate COVID unit in the facility. North Hallway will continue to operate as the COVID unit. All positive Residents will remain on the COVID unit as space allows.
• Hope – The outpouring of support from our families, employees and community is how we know there is light in the darkness. We have hope that we will eventually have a week without new positive cases. We also have hope that we will be able to celebrate the recovery of Residents who are positive for COVID.
We remain committed to our mission of Residents First, Employees Always and we will fight this Pandemic together remaining #NewtonStrong.
At Your Service,
Paula Schoonover, Administrator
